Tasting Notes

Harvest 2011 – Week 5 – Things REALLY get moving…

This week we’ve started seeing far more grapes than the previous week.  Our Pinot Gris and Sauvignon Blanc were joined by our first Chardonnay of the season!  Fruit quality looks really nice and acids are still staying put thanks to the more moderate day time temperatures as well as the cool nights.  The Alexander Valley ...

Harvest 2011 – Week 4 – Grapes, Pigs, and Fun Varieties at Asti Winery

Week 4 has come to a rather quiet close as we only processed a few hundred tons this week atAsti.  It’s a drop in the bucket for what is to come this season.  We were led by Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Gris from the Lodi area which both had perfect Brix, crisp acids, and really ...

Wine Bloggers Conference 2011; A Winemaker’s Perspective…

Last Friday I attended the Wine Bloggers Conference 2011.  This was one of those events that really brought out why the wine industry is so amazing! So many people in one room that were all excited to learn about and discuss topics pertaining to wine.  Unfortunately I was only able to attend the Friday sessions ...

Getting Started: An Introduction to Wine Smelling

Yes, that’s wine SMELLING, not tasting.  I was fortunate enough to get interested in wine before I was actually of legal drinking age.  Why do I say fortunately, you ask?  Because this forced me to only smell wines, for the first two and a half years that I worked in the wine industry.  I really ...

One Last Post Before the End of the World! A Week in Atlanta.

Apparently the world is going to end this evening so I figured I’d better get a post up before everything broke loose.  I’ve been in Atlanta, GA this week promoting Emma Pearl as well as attending the women’s blogger conference BlogHer-Food.  One of the seminars I’ve enjoyed the most was on using social media (i.e. ...

Layovers and Trellis Systems!

So today marked a milestone in my career as it’s the start of my first official Sales Trip!  This trip is for my new brand Emma Pearl however the day so far has been less than pearly.  I decided for reasons that still escape me to not leave out of the tried and true San ...

The Best Bang for Your Buck!!!: Finding Value in Wine

One of the questions I was asked to answer a short time ago is how does one tell which wine brands offer the best values for my money? This is a particularly challenging question because the answer often is “it depends”. The perception of value highly depends on the end consumer…of course this means you! You, the consumer, give the wine a value, whether you realize it or not, depending on how it makes you feel when you enjoy it (or don’t enjoy it), when you talk about it with your friends, or how it makes you feel to purchase it.

An Energizing Couple of Weeks!

While I’m not doing so well in my New Year’s Resolution to write a blog post every week, I have had a busy January. I wanted to share a bit of what I’ve been up to the last few weeks. Post highlights a trip to London, the first bottling of Emma Pearl and the 2011 North American MW Seminar.

What is a Dessert Wine?

My, off the cuff, answer to this question is a dessert wine is one which has enough sweetness to pair well with the final course of a meal, usually dessert, or be served as the dessert. Jancis Robinson’s Oxford Companion to Wine also notes that in America this qualification is based on Alcohol content between 14-24 %. Funny enough this would put a large number of dry red wines in to the dessert wine category as well.

Christmas Wines at My House

Every year, I see a ton of people doing a “What to pair with your Holiday Meal” post. Therefore my blog would not be complete without a similar post to finish off its first calendar year of existence. However I’m just going to do a run down of what is being served at my house this Christmas and what I’m pairing with it. Perhaps you can glean some ideas from it.